Made in Hackney: Vel-Oh bicycle bags

Zulfi Iqbal and his wife Greta Jankunaite decided to design their own bicycle bags to overcome the “frustration” of cycling to work with one bag and having to change over to another.

They design and make everything for Vel-Oh in their Well Street home, and all the materials are sourced in the UK, including British Millerain waxed cotton and leather.

“It was frustrating cycling to work with one bag and having to change to another bag, and we thought why not design a bag that does both - surely there must be a combination of these two together where you can still look stylish but also have the practicality of using it on a bike.

It took them nine months to design their first bag and another year testing it before they launched the range last summer.

“We were testing how it looked, the comfort factor, and if it was presentable to go to work in,” said Zulfi.

“We tested it on the Dunwich Dynamo, a cycle ride which starts at London fields and goes to Dunwich beach in Suffolk, which is a 125 mile night ride, and it was a success - so then we went to market.”

Vel-Oh bags are sold in Velorution cycle store where Zulfi, 43, is store manager.

They have just launched a kick-starter to fund four new bag designs.